Coronavirus: Stomach upset in children 'should be added to symptom list' - study

The study, led by Queen’s University Belfast, analysed the blood of nearly 1,000 children from Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales between April and July to see if they had recently caught coronavirus.

The results, published in MedRxiv, but not yet peer reviewed, found that 68 of the 992 tested positive for antibodies, indicating previous infection with Sars-Cov-2 at some point.

The median age of participants was 10·1 years (range 2.03 to 15.99 years), with 484 (49 per cent) aged under 10 years, with 51 per cent male and 49 per cent female.

Half of the children aged between two and 15 years reported symptoms: 31 percent had a fever: 19 per cent experienced gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal cramps and 18 percent had a headache. The presence of fever, cough or changes in a sense of smell and taste were recorded in 38 percent of participants.

The study concluded that current UK testing strategies directing testing only for those with fever, cough or changes in smell and taste would have identified 76 percent of symptomatic participants in this study. Adding GI symptoms would have identified nearly all symptomatic cases – 97 per cent.

In light of the findings, the researchers say that it may be worth adding GI problems to the checklist of symptoms.

Dr Tom Waterfield, researcher from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and lead on the study said, ‘Following the first wave of the pandemic in the UK, we have learnt that half of children participating in this study are asymptomatic with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and those with symptoms do not typically have a cough or changes to their smell/taste, with GI upset a far more common symptom.’

He added, ‘This study has shown that we may want to consider refining the testing criteria for children to include GI symptoms.’